GP and support people’s concerns and priorities for meeting the health care needs of individuals with developmental disabilities: a metropolitan and non‐metropolitan comparison

Abstract

General practitioners (GPs) from the Australian state of Victoria and support people were surveyed about their concerns and priorities for meeting the health care needs of people with developmental disabilities. Despite the poor response rate (22% and 27%), sampling adequacy was obtained, and the tools were found to have construct validity. According to the results, GPs had concerns about the assessment and management of people with developmental disability and tended to rely on support people. They knew about many services in their communities, but were less likely to know about non‐medical, and government and non‐government disability services. Support people reported concerns about health care service providers’ lack of knowledge, family stress during periods of hospitalisation, and, particularly for rural respondents, the need to travel to access services. There were relatively few differences in responses from metropolitan versus non‐metropolitan respondents, which may be explained by the relative accessibility of Victorian rural towns when compared with other Australian states.